Model Meta is overwriten by abstract parent class

[luxcem]

class Something:

foo = 'foo'

Hi, it seems to be an actual django bug, the example at the address
​https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/topics/db/models/#meta-inheritance
does not work correctly,

  from django.db import models

    class BaseCategory(models.Model):
        title = models.CharField(max_length=100)

        class Meta:
            abstract = True
            ordering = ['title']

    class Category(BaseCategory):

        name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

        class Meta(BaseCategory.Meta):
            ordering = ['name']
            db_table = 'sample'

Category.Meta.ordering is equal to title, Category.Meta.db_table is
undefined and Category.Meta.abstract is correctly set to false, in fact
Category.Meta is of type BaseCategory.Meta.

A stranger behavior is when abstract = True is added to the subclass :

  class Category(BaseCategory):

        name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

        class Meta(BaseCategory.Meta):
            abstract = True
            ordering = ['name']
            db_table = 'sample'

Now the behavior is correct (if abstract was not set) :
Category.Meta.db_table = 'sample', Category.Meta.ordering = name but
Category.Meta.abstract = False, Category.Meta is of type Category.Meta

So additionally it is impossible to create an abstract class inheriting
an abstract class.

Tested with django 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.10.1 and python 2.7, 3.4

[Tim Graham]

Django uses values from the process meta, e.g. Category._meta.db_table, not Category.Meta. Could you be more specific about the problems you encounter when using the models?

[luxcem]

Replying to Tim Graham:

Django uses values from the process meta, e.g. Category._meta.db_table, not Category.Meta. Could you be more specific about the problems you encounter when using the models?

I see, Category._meta is correct and I'll be using this instead of Meta, but anyway it seems that the Meta inheritance behavior is not standard, for example with another subclass :

from django.db import models

class BaseCategory(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    class Meta:
        abstract = True
        ordering = ['title']

    class Something:
        foo = 'foo'

class Category(BaseCategory):

    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)

    class Meta(BaseCategory.Meta):
        ordering = ['name']
        db_table = 'sample'

    class Something(BaseCategory.Something):
        bar = 'bar'

>>> Category.Meta
<class 'core.models.BaseCategory.Meta'>
>>> Category.Something
<class 'core.models.Category.Something'>
>>> Category.Something.bar 
'bar'
>>> Category.Something.foo
'foo'
>>> Category.Meta.db_table
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<ipython-input-6-6545a8699b54>", line 1, in <module>
    Category.Meta.db_table
AttributeError: type object 'Meta' has no attribute 'db_table'

>>> Category.Meta.ordering
['title']

[Tim Graham]

Why is it a problem?

[luxcem]

Replying to Tim Graham:

Why is it a problem?

While it's not an actual problem, it is a very conter intuitive and unexpected behavior.

[Tim Graham]

If you want to provide a patch showing that it can be fixed without breaking anything, feel free to reopen the ticket. I guess the relevant code might be ​Options.contribute_to_class().